Lichtenberger Takes the Lead

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 by Nadia

The Epic Poker League (EPL) conducted its Mix-Max $20,000 final table event at the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas. The twelve finalists began their day of play knowing that a guaranteed pay out of $50,920 will be made, ensuring that they would not go home empty handed. The real battle, however, was for the grand prize of $801,680.

To win the championship, the players were required to narrow down the field to 5 finalists. This was accomplished by dividing the players among tables featuring three or four hands. When day 4 began, Joe Tehan was in the lead and held almost 20% of the chips in the game. However, Scott Clements and Michael Mizrachi followed close behind.

First Player Eliminated almost Immediately after Initial Round Commenced

Almost immediately after the game began, Mizrachi knocked out the first player of the day. The player was Amnon Filippi who began playing with a short stack. When Filippi raised, Mizrachi made a three-bet while playing as the big blind. Filippi went all-in, hoping to take a chunk out of Mizrachi’s stack. Unfortunately for him, Mizrachi called and revealed that he held pocket Queens that easily trumped Filippi’s hand of As-Qs. The board did not give out any aces after that and Amnon was out on the rail.

The next elimination of the day is credited to Andrew Lichtenberger. This began as a lucky streak for Andrew that would put him in the lead eventually. Lichtenberger proceeded to double his stack when he came up against Hafiz Khan. Andrew held pocket Queens while Hafiz’s hand consisted of pocket Eights.

Next, he eliminated Khan with pocket Eights versus his opponents pocket threes. Once he had knocked Khan out of the tournament, his stack was worth 575,000. He then took on Amit Makhija. Both players formed full houses but Lichtenberger’s trumped Makhija, pushing his stack over the 900,000 mark.

Final Table sees a few Notable Eliminations

Unable to recreate the lucky streak he had previously, Tehan lost a chunk of his stack to Sorel Mizzi and his stack was down to 800,000. Andrew continued to climb the leaderboard and made it over the one million mark when he knocked Makhija out of the tournament (10th place). Michael Mizrachi also performed his signature grind, resulting in his breaching the one million mark along with Lichtenberger.

Sorel Mizzi was eliminated, leaving the tournament in 9th place. He was knocked out by Clements after his flush draw was unable to hold up against his opponent’s hand. In addition to Sorel, David Williams left the tournament in 8th place after he took on Jason Mercier. Williams took home a cash prize of $89,680. Mercier was eliminated in 7th place after he faced off with Chris Klodnicki. Though Mercier held a great hand (Q-10), he was unable to hold off Chris.

The Last Five Players Standing

Noah Schwartz, who led the pack on day two, was eliminated in 6th place by Chris Klodnicki. Lichtenberger continued to dominate the tables and maintain his chip lead. While playing against Clements, he crippled the other playing by bringing his stack down to a mere 131,000. Andrew’s stack rose up to 1.7 million.

Lichtenberger, Clements, Tehan, Klodnicki and Mizrachi will be the final five players that will take to the tables on day 5, facing each other in heads up play.